Olivia

Olivia is a fictional pig character in a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ian Falconer, the first entry of which was published in 2000. The Olivia book series was inspired by Ian Falconer's niece, Olivia. "I was just entranced by her," he stated. "I wanted to make a little present for her, so I started working on the Olivia book."

The series is different from many children's picture books because of its stark minimalism. Inspired by the style of Dr. Seuss, Falconer chose to draw uncluttered images in black and white with the occasional splash of red, along with the insertion of real artwork by famous artists — Degas and Pollack for example. Each book in the series explores the use of another signature color in addition to the original black, white and red images.